Toward the end of last year I did something I never thought I’d do.

In fact, when I committed to it, my own mother said, “Well I think you’re crazy.” (thanks, mom)

What was it? The Mudderella. A 5-mile obstacle course that left me completely out of breath, scratched, bruised, and covered in mud from head to toe.

(Unfortunately we didn’t have cameras on the obstacle course, and the giant water slide at the end washed us off a bit, but here’s the soaking wet version of my team – I’m on the right.)

To be honest, I was scared to death to do this race. I had no idea if I could even run 5 miles, let alone climb walls and army crawl through muddy tunnels.

(Did I mention I’m claustrophobic? And I don’t particularly like mud? Or running??)

Well here’s why I signed myself up for this nonsense in the first place: it gave me a deadline.

We all talk about getting into shape, but when you know your options are to DO IT or collapse in a mud pit on race day, you start dragging your tired butt out of bed at 5:09am and get your sweat on.

Here’s the interesting thing… even though I started preparing for this near the beginning of the year, the last 30 days is when everything changed. I made a few simple tweaks and literally quadrupled the results I had previously worked for months to achieve.

That’s the power of a deadline.

You, my friend, have the same gift.

It’s called “30 days from now.”

That is your deadline to accomplish the ONE THING that you know will make the single biggest impact on your business.

Be specific in your goal. This isn’t a “finish everything I’ve been meaning to do” type of challenge – it’s singular focused.

Get 3 great clients, finish updating that website, hire that key team member that I know will be a game changer…. whatever your ONE thing is.

Then set yourself a reward for when you hit it… and a consequence if you don’t.

Both are powerful. And honestly, I’m typically more inspired by reward than consequence; but in this particular circumstance I found the consequence (collapsing in a mud pit) quite motivating!